It used to be that casinos were only allowed to be on water (IE: A riverboat). Then one of the casinos here in St. Louis found a loophole and basically dug a moat and built the casino on top of that instead of on the river.

That basically put an end to that rule and now casinos are built on land and bigger than ever and there is only one or two riverboat casinos left in the St. Louis area.

casinos don't want to have to operate riverboats, but were forced to as a condition of running casinos. Old folks who opposed 'em and forced the boating requirements...if nothing else, then to limit their number...will be shaking their fists at clouds, about now. Casino companies are satisfied that their long-term planning, following the Social Justice model.

stevarooni:casinos don't want to have to operate riverboats, but were forced to as a condition of running casinos. Old folks who opposed 'em and forced the boating requirements...if nothing else, then to limit their number...will be shaking their fists at clouds, about now. Casino companies are satisfied that their long-term planning, following the Social Justice model.

The casino near St. Louis is allegedly on water, but you couldn't tell it - that's one of the loophole casinos. If you're going to have a casino on water, you should be able to untie it from its moorings and float downstream. If not, it's just a building on piers.

The casinos in Tunica MS are the loophole variety of casino, basically a channel dug into the riverbank with a casino built upon a huge barge that is tied down very securely. Most don't know they are afloat while aboard.

In Shreveport/Bossier, the hotels are so integrated into the riverboats that it's easy to forget that you're on a boat at all. I imagine if they ever had to sail them the side of the boat would look like the inside of the hotel.

No non-smoking sections and sub par smoke filtration keep my money where it belongs. Hmm, I think I'll go get a powerball ticket.

Riverboat gambling is an idea that got legislated into stupidity.I'm not saying legislators are stupid, just that they had to twist and bend to beat the anti-gambling forces.I'm not a gambler, but the idea of a real riverboat full of gamblers on a day trip is pretty cool.

Dear Jerk:Riverboat gambling is an idea that got legislated into stupidity.I'm not saying legislators are stupid, just that they had to twist and bend to beat the anti-gambling forces.I'm not a gambler, but the idea of a real riverboat full of gamblers on a day trip is pretty cool.

I was alive in the 80s and living in illinois. the issue was the fundies hated gambling but the idea of a "riverboat" made it somehow seem less threatening, Mark Twain history and all of that. Plus everyone knew already "down by the river" was the unsavory people, so if you wanted gambling there at least it wasn't out in the nice new mall or downtown. People were worried gambling would be too prevalent but if you limit it to just being on a boat, then it seemed more safe. Remember no internet net, remember years of no gambling anywhere but Vegas.. Remember Vegas only being non-mobbed up for only a few years at that point.

Now its damn near 30 years later and everyone's grown up with being comfortable with gambling, and now limiting them to this notion of they need to be on a boat seems silly. Wasn't always the case.

The best new law change is in Illinois, where they stipulate that the casino part must still be "over water". So new land-based casinos which are starting to come online or are being proposed, which are very nice, upscale little Vegas-styled casinos, all have basements that are flooded with 6 inches of water.

The puckerbutts over in Nebraska were VERY butthurt at not only losing their own horse racing track which was an outdated dinosaur, but were seething jealous of the riverboat on the Iowa side which was making the mad money that Nebraska thinks should belong only to them. Nebraska even threatened to board & impound the boat if it strayed one foot over the border onto the Nebraska side.

Plus the cost of dredging outall that river sand underneath the boat every year, along with it's other upkeep expenses, were costing the casino a lot of dough. Casinos want to make money not spend it after all.

JonZoidberg:In Shreveport/Bossier, the hotels are so integrated into the riverboats that it's easy to forget that you're on a boat at all. I imagine if they ever had to sail them the side of the boat would look like the inside of the hotel.

I remember when Indiana went the riverboat route, and there was a big hotel/convention space/golf resort type joint put in by Caesar's just down river from Louisville. The gambling boat actually, in its first few years, putt-putted up and down the OH a few thousand yards, or something. Then, they just started floating a few feet offshore, sat there for a four-hour "cruise", and floated back in. Now, it's Horseshoe, and looks odd because it still has legacy trappings of the "roman" shiat, and doesn't even leave the dock. Asians, rednecks, old folks and losers come and go as they please, 24/7. There has been a push in the KY legislature in recent years to allow some level of casino-style gambling at the horse tracks, under the claim that billions of potential tax dollars are going over the river to IN and OH casinos. At Kentucky Downs, a "European" style turf course just south of Bowling Green, where they only run horses a week in September, they have OTB and now "instant racing", a slot machine disguised as a horse racing bet, where it shows videos of past horse races you can bet on. All the info is stripped of the video, so you don't know who/when/where was involved in the actual race.

20 years from now, pot will be legal, heavily taxed, and there will be a dozen casinos here in the Commonwealth.

Sooner, if the diabeetus gets to all the old southern Baptist Bible-thumbers that run this place.